A DREAM is about to come true for a schoolgirl who has been chosen to go on a holiday of a lifetime.

Carla Golding, 12, is one of scores of children off to the United States next month with a charity called Dreamflight. All the youngsters aboard the jumbo jet have serious illnesses or disabilities.

Carla, of Rendezvous Street, Folkestone, suffers from spina bifida and cannot walk. She also has hydrocaephalus, commonly known as water on the brain.

Her condition means she is wheelchair-bound and has to have excess fluid taken off her brain. She makes many trips to hospital where her condition is monitored and regular blood tests are carried out.

But despite her problems the youngster is a delight to be with. She is happy and helpful and is doing so well at her boarding school in Hampshire that she has been moved up a year group.

Her step-father, David Crompton, said: "Carla gets on well with everyone. She helps a lot in her classroom and is doing so brilliantly at school. She was over the moon when she was chosen to go on this holiday. We had a call out of the blue to say she'd been selected.

"At the last minute someone else couldn't go as they were about to have an operation, so Carla was accepted instead."

The jumbo takes off from Heathrow on Sunday, October 12. The children will be waved off by a host of celebrities, including Sir Cliff Richard, the patron of Dreamflight. Once in Florida the children will be VIPs to most of the major theme parks including Disney World.